Pressure Drop of Monolithic Catalytic Converters Experiments and Modeling

The pressure drop behavior of catalytic converters has been investigated for a number of different substrates, suitable for high performance IC-engines, regarding cell density, wall thickness and coating.

The measurements have been performed on an experimental rig with room-air flow and hot-air flow. The data has been used to develop an empirical model for pressure drop in catalytic converters. The sources of pressure drop, such as viscous and inertial effects, have been separated in the model. The influence of turbulence on the pressure drop has been experimentally investigated. The model agrees well with experimental data and previous literature models and can be applied for 1D predictions as well as 3D CFD calculations.